Institutional Investor (November 21)
“After saving $1.6 billion since implementing its high-profile Collaborative Model in 2017, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System plans to focus on even more sophisticated cost savings efforts.” It already directly “manages 85 percent of its fixed income portfolio, and 75 percent of the global equities book in-house.” Now it plans to extends its Collaborative Model to encompass more private investments while shifting “its exposure from global equity to private credit, private equity, and infrastructure.”
Tags: 2017, CalSTRS, Collaborative Model, Cost savings, Credit, Fixed income, Global equities, Implementing, In-house, Infrastructure, Portfolio, Private equity, Sophisticated
CNN (August 18)
“The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index, which looks at seven indicators of market sentiment, is showing signs of fear on Friday for the first time since March. That’s a big change from just one month ago, when the index was in ‘extreme greed’ territory.” The culprit? “China’s economy is in trouble” and that “spells bad news for US stocks, and potentially for your portfolio.”
Tags: Big change, China, Culprit, Economy, Extreme greed, Fear & Greed Index, March, Market sentiment, Portfolio, Stocks, Trouble, U.S.
SFGate (June 6)
“A billion dollar company that owned two substantial San Francisco hotels announced June 5 that it’s defaulting on its loan and releasing the hotels from its portfolio.” Park Hotels & Resorts “will immediately stop making payments toward a $725 million loan, slated to mature November 2023.” The REIT cited the “best interest” of its unitholders given “concerns over street conditions; lower return to office than peer cities; and a weaker than expected citywide convention calendar through 2027.”
Tags: $725 million loan, Defaulting, Hotels, Loan, Park Hotels & Resorts, Payments, Portfolio, REIT, Return to office, San Francisco, Street conditions, Unitholders
Institutional Investor (March 29)
“Personal coaches to private-equity executives report that their clients are increasingly worried about their impact on their employees, business, and even the world.” While fundraising dominates their concerns amid recent market uncertainty, “executives are also thinking hard about other broad changes in their industry. Investment committees, limited partners, and employees increasingly expect firms — and their portfolio companies — to be more diverse, inclusive, and generally better places to work than in the past.”
Tags: Diverse, Employees, Executives, Fundraising, Impact, Industry, Investment, Market uncertainty, Personal coaches, Portfolio, Private equity, Worried
Reuters (December 16)
“The euro zone will soon have to pay for a decade of European Central Bank largesse. Rising interest rates are turning the ECB’s portfolio of bonds acquired since 2014 into a money-losing machine. The question of how those losses are shared could become a major source of tension between member states.”
Tags: 2014, Bonds, ECB, Euro zone, Interest rates, Largesse, Losses, Money-losing, Portfolio, Rising
Institutional Investor (March 25)
“Activist approaches may gain ground as investors get pragmatic about fossil fuel companies. Asset managers like Engine No. 1 argue that holding companies accountable for net-zero goals is a better route to change than divesting.” Its new ETF will target companies with “plans and products in place to handle the changing climate and the dwindling supply of natural resources. This also means that the portfolio will end up invested in some of the most polluting companies, including General Motors, Ford, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Deere.”
Tags: Accountable, Activist, Asset managers, Canadian Pacific, Changing climate, Deere, Divesting, Dwindling supply, Engine No 1, Ford, Fossil fuel, GM, Investors, Natural resources, Net zero, Portfolio
Wall Street Journal (January 6)
“Investors are bracing themselves for volatility in 2022. Easing supply chain snarls, potential interest rate increases and slowing growth in corporate earnings are all being closely watched. Contributing to the murky picture: a mixed economic recovery, complicated by the fast-moving Omicron variant of Covid-19, which is making it harder for investors to consider whether to readjust portfolios toward value stocks.”
Tags: 2022, COVID-19, Earnings, Growth, Interest rates, Investors, Murky, Omicron, Portfolio, Recovery, Slowing, Snarls, Supply chain, Variant, Volatility
Wall Street Journal (November 16)
Royal Dutch Shell will abandon its complicated dual British/Dutch structure, moving its headquarters to London. The move is being made to “help facilitate returns to shareholders and make it simpler to change up its portfolio of assets” as it transitions to low-carbon energy. The move should also improve the company’s “flexibility to buy back shares.”
Tags: Assets, Buy back, Dual structure, Energy, Flexibility, Headquarters, London, Low-carbon, Portfolio, Returns, Shareholders, Shell, Transitions
Australian Financial Review (October 25)
“Inflation will be the key issue for financial markets in coming years, with investors set to reap massive profits or suffer swingeing losses, depending on whether they make the right call on the stickiness of price pressures.” Astute investors are now figuring out strategies, like shortening bond maturities within their portfolio, to help “insulate their investment portfolios from the threat of rising inflation.”
Tags: Bond maturities, Financial markets, Inflation, Investors, Losses, Portfolio, Price pressures, Profits, Shortening, Stickiness, Strategies, Threat
New York Times (February 27)
“Freaked out by the stock market? Take a deep breath.” This is not a time for drastic portfolio moves unless “there have been drastic changes in your life, like a big new job or consequential medical news.” Otherwise, remember that if you “hold on long enough to a diverse collection of stocks…the system has tended to generously repay patient people over six or seven decades of working, saving and drawing down a portfolio.”
Tags: Deep breath, Drastic, Freaked out, Market, Patient, Portfolio, Saving, Stocks, Working
